He perceived, however, in spite of the multiplicity of his official work, that his refusal sat heavily on his wife's breast, and that, though she spoke no further word, she brooded over her injury.And his heart was sad within him when he thought he had vexed her,--loving her as he did with all his heart, but with a heart that was never demonstrative.When she was unhappy he was miserable, though he would hardly know the cause of his misery.
Her ridicule and raillery he could bear, though they stung him;but her sorrow, if ever she were sorrowful, or her sullenness, if ever she were sullen, upset him altogether.He was in truth so soft of heart that he could not bear the discomfort of the one person in the world who seemed to him to be near to him.He had expressly asked her for her sympathy for the business he had on hand,--thereby going much beyond his usual coldness of manner.
She, with an eagerness which might have been expected from her, had promised that she would slave for him, if slavery were necessary.Then she had made her request, had been refused, and was now moody.'The Duchess of -- is to be Mistress of The Robes,' he said to her one day.He had gone to her, up to her own room, before he dressed for dinner, having devoted much more time that as Prime Minister he ought to have done to a resolution that he would make things straight with her, and to the best way of doing it.
'So I am told.She ought to know her away about the place, as Iremember she was at the same work when I was a girl of eleven.'
'That's not so very long ago, Cora.'
'Silverbridge is older now than I was then, and I think that makes it a very long time ago.' Lord Silverbridge was the Duke's eldest son.
'But what does it matter? If she began her career at the time of George the Fourth, what is it to you?'
'Nothing on earth,--only that she did in truth begin her career in the time of George the Third.I'm sure she's nearer sixty than fifty.'
'I'm glad to see you remember your dates so well.'
'It's a pity she should not remember hers in the ways she dresses,' said the Duchess.
This was marvellous to him,--that his wife, who as Lady Glencora Palliser had been so conspicuous for a wild disregard of social rules as to be looked upon by many as an enemy of her own class, should be so depressed by not being allowed to be the Queen's head servant as to descend to personal invective! 'I'm afraid,'
said he, attempting to smile, 'that it won't come within the compass of my office to effect or even to propose any radical change in her Grace's apparel.But don't you think that you and I can afford to ignore all that?'
'I can certainly.She may be an antiquated Eve for me.'
'I hope, Cora, you are not still disappointed because I did not agree with you when you spoke about the place for yourself.'
'Not because you did not agree with me,--but because you did not think me fit to be trusted with any judgement of my own.I don't know why I'm always to be looked upon as different from other women,--as though I were half a savage.'
'You are what you made yourself, and I have always rejoiced that you are as you are, fresh, untrammelled, without many prejudices which afflict other ladies, and free from bonds by which they are cramped and confined.Of course such a turn of character is subject to certain dangers of its own.'
'There is no doubt about the dangers.The chances are that when I see her Grace, I shall tell her what I think about her.'
'You will I am sure say nothing unkind to a lady who is supposed to be in the place she now fills by my authority.But do not let us quarrel about an old woman.'
'I won't quarrel with you even about a young one.'